I just saw the "alternate" ending on the DVD and it was a perfect happy ending. It was exactly what I wanted. Ted and Tracy live happily ever after, Bob Sagat gives a beautiful ending monologue about how he met your mother (remember, Sagat isn't even IN in the aired finale!), there's even a prominent hint that Robin and Barney DO end up together in the end.

I, too, really enjoyed the alternate ending and prefer it over the original one. I get what Bays and Thomas were trying to do with their ending, but it just didn't work for me. It was cool of them to at least offer us an alternate take.

I agree, the alternate ending is pretty much perfect. I would have loved to see that on the night of the finale. It's a bit corny or too-perfect-to-be-true, sure, but I really feel like that is the ending the series as a whole and the last season in particular was running up to. It's the ending which at least for me would have made this show perfect.

I'm in the middle of a series re-watch (mid Season Six), and Ted secretly wanting Robin all along just does not work. There are a million examples of them happily seeing the other dating someone else, going out of their way to set them up with others, without the slightest hint of longing or jealousy or feelings. Yes, sporadically Ted will have Robin feelings, but they just seem to come out of the blue and are inconsistent with what happened beforehand.

It's a nice ending but it's not memorable. Too safe, too boring. And what about all the foreshadowing of the mother's death? The show runners shouldn't have made an alternate ending. They should have made people live with the one we got.

It's a nice ending but it's not memorable. Too safe, too boring. And what about all the foreshadowing of the mother's death? The show runners shouldn't have made an alternate ending. They should have made people live with the one we got.

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Even if they have written themselves into a corner during the run of the show showing us repeatedly that Ted and Robin don't work and then blowing it all off just so they could stick to their original, planned ending they came up with 9 years ago?

It may not be a memorable finale but it was very nice and i vastly prefer it over the mess that was the actual finale.